Excerpt from The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

There's a thin, clear light coming through the room's dirty window. It's dawn. I'm still looking at the sketch when my phone rings. I pick it up without looking. "Yeah."

"Is this Sharon?"

"Yes."

"We were given this number by Dana at Independent Artists Agency? We're looking for Melody Vaught."

My watch reads seven-thirty A.M.I look up. Mel's iPhone lies cracked side up on the table. "Her phone's busted."

The voice hesitates. "We haven't been able to get ahold of her, and we really need to." I hear the twang now. Shit. A collections agency. "I'm calling from the Central Florida Women's Correctional Facility clinic regarding Kelly Kay Vaught?"

I stare at the wall, totally useless, until it hits me: Mel's mom.

"Ma'am? Are you still there?"

"I'm sorry. Yes, I'm still here. What about Kelly Kay?"

"Ms. Vaught passed away yesterday evening. Melody is listed as her next of kin."

The woman gives me a phone number, an address, stresses Mel's need to be there to identify the body. I feel like my ears are stuffed with cotton. We hang up before I realize I did not ask how she died.

I wonder if Kelly Kay had seen Nashville Combat. I wonder if she died knowing that her daughter made a movie about her. I wonder if she died while her daughter was on a stage, accepting an award, blinking blindly into the bright lights.

Excerpted from The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker. Copyright © 2017 by Kayla Rae Whitaker. Excerpted by permission of Random House. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.